


Gotta Catch That Feeling

by idreamofdraco



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, Pandemics, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 01, Quarantine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:26:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29751981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idreamofdraco/pseuds/idreamofdraco
Summary: A few short weeks after their Orpheum performance, the pandemic hits. Statewide lockdowns means no more school, no more Flynn, and no more shows. It doesn't take long until Julie goes stir-crazy and discovers her ability to touch the boys did not disappear once Caleb's stamp did. Will she embrace her ability or avoid it in light of growing feelings between Julie and Luke?
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina, Flynn & Julie Molina, Julie Molina & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 5
Kudos: 52





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The last time I wrote a non-Harry Potter fic was 2008 during the Twilight craze. Sixteen years of writing fic and all but two of my stories are about Harry Potter characters. I honestly didn't think I was capable of writing for any other fandoms/pairings, but this sprang out of me, so... here goes nothing!
> 
> Julie and the Phantoms became a new favorite show as soon as I started watching it. I've rewatched it multiple times since September and I listen to the soundtrack on constant repeat. Nothing has brought me as much comfort and joy during the pandemic as this show has, so this story is a representation of how the show comforted me when I was the most anxious, stressed, and depressed in 2020. [It's based on a COVID-19 AU idea I had and wrote about on Tumblr.](https://jawesomesauce.tumblr.com/post/643623127146004480/jatp-covid-19au-idea-pandemic-strikes-after)
> 
> I have purposely decided not to name the virus that caused the pandemic in the story. This could be a COVID story, or if that's too stressful to think about in your escapist fantasy, it could be a different disease altogether, one that does not exist and so cannot hurt us. I have no idea when this is taking place. I'm not basing any of the lockdown procedures on real-life procedures and timelines because I don't live in California, don't know what happened there at the beginning of it all, and don't want to focus too much on the scary stuff. Hopefully the lack of details will make the story more comforting and less triggering.

Luke always knew when Julie was upset about something. Even before they’d started practice, before she’d listlessly pressed the keys of her keyboard, before Reggie had said something to her that she hadn’t heard, Luke had known.

Something was wrong.

He raised his hand up and drew a fist across the air, a motion signalling Reggie and Alex to stop playing. Julie was lost in her own world, so it took her a few more chords to realize she was the only one still playing.

He put his guitar on its stand and approached the keyboard while the guys hung back with worried looks on their faces. Julie was the strongest person they knew. None of them could stand to see her upset. She was trying to hide it, but it had been obvious as soon as the music started playing. Her mind wasn’t in it. Neither was her heart.

Seriously, seriously wrong.

“Hey,” Luke said quietly to her bent head. “What’s wrong?”

Finally her eyes met his. Until this moment, he hadn’t realized that she hadn’t looked up since coming into the studio twenty minutes ago. Luke devoured her face, searching it for some hint of what could be bothering her.

She smiled, and it was strained. “What? Nooo, nothing’s wrong! Why would you think something’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Alex said in a dry tone. “Maybe because you’ve been playing your mom’s song while we’ve been playing French Dip.”

Reggie nodded. “And you didn’t say anything when I sang the wrong words.”

Luke’s voice was lower than the others, still trying to contain the conversation between the two of them. “And you haven’t looked at us once since practice started. Come on. What’s up? Did something happen with Flynn?”

Luke’s efforts to keep their conversation private had failed because Reggie gasped and added, “Or Ray? Is your dad okay? I told you to tell him not to climb on things to get better photos. Did he fall off a ladder? _The roof?_ ”

Julie’s shoulders straightened, and she looked at Luke, Reggie, and Alex in turn, as if to make up for not acknowledging them earlier. “No. Everyone’s fine. But something did happen.”

She came out from behind the keyboard and went to the couch, clutching her arms as if she was cold. Alex stuffed his drumsticks in his back pocket and Reggie put down his bass as they, too, joined Julie and Luke by the couch.

“What’s going on?” Alex asked, and one of his arms swung toward Julie, as if he was going to pat her shoulder or reach for her hand. He jerked it back and stuffed both of his hands in his pockets instead.

It had been nearly three weeks since their show at the Orpheum. Three weeks since Julie broke Caleb’s curse. Three weeks since Julie hugged Luke and Alex and Reggie, touching them for the first time while they emitted light like golden glow sticks, cracked first and then shaken. They hadn’t thought it was possible for a lifer to touch a ghost, but somehow Julie had done the impossible.

She hadn’t tried touching them again since then, but Luke thought about it all the time. He didn’t sleep, but he dreamed about how good she’d felt in his arms, how alive he’d felt in hers. Even touching Reggie and Alex had been different. As ghosts, they touched each other all the time and it was almost like being alive. But when Julie had hugged all three of them, there had been a warmth that didn’t exist between only Alex, Reggie, and him, a literal difference in temperature. There had been a solidity that Luke hadn’t realized he’d been missing until the hug was over and he and the guys had piled on top of each other without Julie, excited to continue existing, even if they were still ghosts.

Luke had tried touching other lifers since then. Carlos knew about them now. That kid was way too smart not to figure out the truth eventually. But when Luke tried to tap his shoulder one afternoon while Carlos was sitting at the bar in the kitchen, his hand had gone right through him, and only Luke had been affected by the non-touch.

It seemed either Julie’s glowing hug had been a once-in-an-afterlife-time experience or she was the only one with the magic touch. They didn’t know because Julie had been very careful since The Hug not to touch any of them. Luke sensed she was nervous to find out whether the touch was a permanent change or not. He understood that. He was nervous about learning the truth, too.

Julie let out a breath. “There’s this new virus that’s never been seen before. It’s infecting the whole world. It first showed up in other parts of the world a couple months ago, but there are cases in America now. Here. In California. And now the whole state is on lockdown. Restaurants, movie theaters, clubs and concert venues are all closed. We have to stay home. I’m not even allowed to go to school anymore.”

“No school? That sounds like a good thing to me,” Reggie said.

Julie rolled her eyes. “I still have school, I just can’t _go_ to school.”

Reggie nodded. “Ohhhhhh…. I don’t get it.”

“It’s called distance learning,” Julie explained. “Carlos and I will have to do our schoolwork virtually on the computer. It’s like being homeschooled, except our teachers can talk to us through the computer, and we can talk back.”

“I don’t know if that’s cool or sad,” Reggie whispered loudly to Alex, his expression horrified.

Alex ignored him. “So what does all of this mean?”

“It means we’ll have more time to write songs and practice our music,” Luke said. He rocked on his feet at the thought of all the time he and Julie would now have to write more songs, and he had to control himself to keep his arms from waving with excitement.

Julie stood up from the couch, and she made no effort to control her arms’ frustrated movements. “What’s the point? Didn’t you hear what I said? Everything is closed. Coffee shops, clubs, even the Orpheum. We can’t book any gigs, and we don’t know when everything will open again. Even my school is closed, so we won’t be playing any dances or spirit rallies any time soon.”

Luke deflated, collapsing into a chair.

Alex removed his hands from his pockets, lifting them in a placating gesture. “Okay, okay. This sounds bad, but this is the right thing to do, right? There wouldn’t be a lockdown if it wasn’t necessary… right?”

Julie nodded. “We don’t know a whole lot about the virus except that it’s really contagious and deadly. Dad said if everyone stays home, they can’t catch the virus or spread it. It’s for the safety of everyone. I know this is the right thing to do, but I can’t leave the house. I can’t see Flynn. The last thing I said to Flynn was ‘see you tomorrow!’ What if I never see her again?” She covered her face and fell over sideways, bouncing slightly on the couch’s worn-out cushion.

Luke jumped back up and paced because he didn’t know what else to do. He was frustrated because Julie wasn’t just upset. She seemed _scared_ , and a scared Julie scared _him_. He’d never seen her scared like this before, and there was nothing he could do about it. What he wanted to do was physically impossible, and his next best idea was to put an instrument in each of their hands and play until nothing mattered except the music.

Music seemed to be the last thing on her mind, though, and that scared Luke just as much as everything else going on did.

Alex crouched down in front of the couch, keeping his balance on the coffee table. “Julie, listen.”

Her fingers spread so she could peek at him from between them.

“I know this is scary. _I’m_ scared even though I’m pretty sure ghosts can’t catch deadly lifer diseases.”

Julie lowered her hands and sat up again, her forehead still wrinkled in concern but listening closely to Alex’s soothing voice.

“You’ll see Flynn again. Until then, you can still talk to her on the phone.”

“And look at her on the phone!” Reggie added helpfully.

“Yeah. You can still talk to her all the time. As much as your dad will let you. And you have us, too.”

Luke took a step forward. “Whenever you need us. We’ll always be here. You made sure that we could always be here for you.”

She flushed, her cheeks darkening as she looked at Luke. He didn’t have a heart or a heartbeat, but if he had, it would have pounded heavily in his chest. If he used his imagination, he might even be able to feel it.

“The worry in her forehead smoothed out as she took a deep breath. “Thank you, guys, for being here for me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“If we play our cards right, you might never have to find out,” Reggie said.

“I really hope you’re right,” she replied.

Luke could have sworn on the soul she saved that she looked right at him as she said it, and his non-heart warmed as if glowing with Julie’s magic.


	2. Chapter 2

  


_Three Months Later_

Ray no longer startled when Julie gave him surprise hugs. He had at first. He’d be working on editing photos on the computer and suddenly she would drape herself over his back, wrapping her arms around his neck in a tight, suffocating squeeze.

“What’s this for, mija?” he’d asked the third time she’d done it in the same week.

“No reason!” she’d replied as she let go of him, her voice too bright.

But Ray knew better than to believe her smile even though it was a pretty convincing one. He’d seen that exact same smile on her face the first time he’d suggested counseling after Rose passed away, as if she thought a smile was proof enough that she was okay. It wasn’t until after a few months of counseling that her smile had become genuine, maybe more subdued than before her mother had passed, but full of real emotion nonetheless.

He hadn’t pushed Julie for an explanation about the hug. He got it. The world had changed in a very short period of time. In fact, _their_ whole world had shrunk to the lot they lived on. The house. The backyard. The garage studio.

Ray was grateful that Julie’s hologram bandmates made it possible for their band to continue to play music even though they couldn’t meet in person. From what he understood, they never had met in person before. All their practices, all their gigs, were done virtually, with Julie the only live member of the band.

It worried him that even though making music, her favorite thing in the world to do, was still accessible to her, he hadn’t heard much music coming out of the studio in recent weeks. Around the time he began to notice the lack of music was the same time Julie began to give him impromptu hugs throughout the day.

He got it. A hologram band was a wonderful feat of technology, but it wasn’t the same as working together with people, the physical intimacy of collaboration. Ray was struggling the same way with his art. He’d had to pivot the subject of his photos in light of the pandemic, shooting more inanimate objects and landscapes over people. He missed working with people, getting their feedback and input about the kind of photos they wanted, seeing their faces when he showed them the unedited photos on his camera.

He understood why Julie hugged him. He no longer startled when she did it, no longer questioned her for an explanation. Instead, he just wrapped his arms around her and held her to him tightly.

And he prayed for an end to this pandemic soon. He couldn’t stand the thought of losing his little niña the same way he’d lost her after Rose’s passing. He just hoped life could return to normal before she lost her spark again permanently.

* * *

“You know, I’m almost starting to miss Carrie.”

Julie’s mind had been wandering, but it wandered back at those words.

“You can’t be serious,” she said to her phone.

Flynn attempted to hold a straight face for approximately point-five seconds before she burst out in a laugh. “You’re right, I’m just kidding.” Her expression sobered, and she arched one eyebrow. “Or am I?”

Julie giggled. “If you miss her so much, you could always watch her YouTube channel. Last I saw, she got a sponsorship from Gucci for one of her videos.”

Flynn’s hand flew up from the bottom of the screen, pointing into the camera directly at Julie. “Hey! I didn’t say I _actually_ missed her. Just that I was _almost starting_ to. And what are you doing giving Carrie more YouTube views?”

“I was checking out the band’s YouTube analytics and it was a recommended video!” Julie raised her hand in the air and held up three fingers. “I didn’t watch it. Scout’s honor.”

Flynn gave her a shrewd look. “Yeah yeah,” she said skeptically before breaking out into a teasing smile. “But seriously, Jules. I miss _you_. Double Trouble just isn’t the same when we aren’t together.”

Julie’s gaze lowered to her bedspread, the teasing vibe now gone. “I miss you, too.”

“Have you and the guys been working on any new music lately?”

Julie perched her chin on top of her raised knees as she hugged her legs to her chest. She frowned and looked down into the phone propped up against her pillows. Flynn’s eyebrows were raised, her expression one of expectation, and Julie hated to disappoint her.

“No, not in a while. Luke still has ideas, but it feels like all that creative energy that fueled us in the beginning has run out for me. I can’t even bring myself to go into the studio anymore.” She glanced away, afraid to admit the next thing. “I feel like I’m letting them down. They’re probably better off without me right now.”

“Are you kidding me?” Flynn said. “Don’t ever think that. Without Julie, there is no Julie and the Phantoms.”

“Yeah, but without Julie there’s still Sunset Curve. The guys were on their way to becoming rock and roll legends, and they did that without me.”

“But _with you_ they can become even bigger legends! You know just as well as I do that they don’t want to make music without you.” Flynn paused for a moment, and Julie looked back down at the screen. “You know _Luke_ doesn’t want to make music without you,” she added suggestively, a sly grin spreading across her face.

Julie’s cheeks grew warm. “I thought you wanted me to get over—” She stopped herself and glanced around to make sure none of the boys had poofed into her room without permission, and then she lowered her voice to a whisper. “—my crush on Luke.”

Flynn shrugged. “I know a lost cause when I see one. Does having a crush on air make sense? No. But let’s be real, you don’t have a lot of options for eye candy these days, and no one can deny that you make great music together. Besides, you saved his soul from an evil ghost demon, so it seems like you’re stuck with him for a while. Might as well enjoy it while you can.”

The heat in Julie’s face grew exponentially, not only because of Flynn’s teasing about Julie’s crush but also because of guilt. She hadn’t told Flynn the whole story about what happened in the studio after the Orpheum show. All Julie had told her was that after Julie had told the guys she loved them, they’d begun to glow and Caleb’s stamp had disintegrated from their arms. She’d left out the _tiny_ detail that Julie had been able to touch them, hug them, as if they weren’t made of air but flesh and blood instead.

She hadn’t meant to omit the truth, but she didn’t know what the touch meant, and she didn’t know if they’d be able to do it again. It had felt like a private moment, a dream Julie hadn’t realized she’d wished for coming true. If she told Flynn about it, she was afraid Flynn would know that Julie’s crush had grown into something a little less childish. Something a little _more_.

She planned to tell Flynn the whole truth after Julie figured out whether or not she could touch the boys again. That way talking about it wouldn’t cause anyone’s hopes to rise too high. The problem was that Julie was scared to know the truth, because no matter what happened, the truth was going to be too much for her heart to take. So for the last several months, she had been extra careful not to get too close to Alex, Reggie, and Luke. Unfortunately, along with her lack of creative inspiration, her avoidance of the boys had come between them and the music they were making, too.

Flynn hadn’t seemed to notice Julie’s guilt because she gasped and smiled widely. “Have you guys thought about putting on a virtual show?”

“We haven’t talked about it,” Julie hedged.

“I know you said you aren’t making music right now, but you could still perform some of your other songs and livestream it to Instagram! People were doing that sort of thing all the time when this mess first started. A performance might be just what you need to get your creative juices flowing.”

Flynn seemed so excited by the idea, but Julie wasn’t sure. She hadn’t played the piano in a few weeks, and singing had felt impossible with the weight of virtual school, pandemic anxiety, and isolation sitting heavy on her chest. But Flynn’s hope seemed to flow through their FaceTime connection, the tiniest particle of that hope landing on Julie and infecting her. Like a sneeze.

Playing songs they’d already perfected didn’t take the same kind of effort as writing and learning new songs. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.

Julie didn’t even have to say anything. Surrender must have been obvious on her face because Flynn’s expression turned a little bit smug.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “As Julie and the Phantoms’ marketing team, I’ll handle everything. Just leave it to me.”

Julie smiled back unconvincingly. A giggle fell out of her mouth without mirth. This was either going to be a great success or an utter disaster.


End file.
